To be...
by foxyboy
Summary: Chapter two is up. (No one loves my fics. Boohoo.) Damon (Pronounced Dey-mohn) is finally introduced to the good guys, plus a little angsty feely moments plus some background info.
1. [ Afraid ]

"To be..."  
Chapter one  
**[ A f r a i d ]**

* * *

He looked around, his more than obvious nervousness was beginning to float all around him in a strange cloud of stage fright. He had never gotten stage fright before, but then again, this wasn't like before anyway.  
  
It was the first time he played on an empty stomach.  
  
A three-day-old empty stomach.  
  
Thoughts of every possible event that would probably get him to faint on stage played in his head, the most popular one involving him fainting from hunger. Ideas that just lingered, taunting him. Teasing him. Plaguing him.  
  
Or perhaps, warning him not to go up there. Public humiliation was never good, even if you didn't have anyone around to tell you about it later.  
  
He slapped his hand against his forehead, mentally swearing at himself for being such a coward. Cowardice and pride were two things that he couldn't afford at the moment. Public humiliation was a small thing to pay for a warm meal.  
  
"Evening people..."  
  
It was about to start. His fingers were cold in anticipation, sweat covering his palms in a slimy film. He wiped it against his pants, sweaty palms don't help panicky musicians, he thought.  
  
"I normally don't come up here and introduce the one who'll be performing tonight." _Of course he didn't. They almost always had big names. And a very large fanbase.  
  
All I had was one guitar and very sweaty hands._  
  
"...But now we've got someone new for you tonight. Everyone please welcome a very talented musician, Damon!" The spotlight had gone on and the entire place was solely illuminated with dimmer lights set on low, casting an eerie glow that limited his already poor vision.  
  
He stood there for several seconds, not moving. He probably wouldn't have continued moving if only his stomach hadn't grumbled to him. He adjusted his glasses and took a tentative step up the stairs...  
  
And started his gig.  
  


+++

"Like, you think he's any good? Sure he's cute and all but..." Kitty asked everyone else as she took a sip from a rootbeer float, her eyes more focused on Damon's old, faded clothes than anything else. Apparently, people weren't all too appreciative of the fact that he was underage. A huge turnoff for a lot of the bar's patrons, even the X-Men.  
  
"He seems kinda young." Rogue commented, her eyes seeming a little more sleepy than usual. She was just probably dragged along for the trip. She wasn't too in going to these kind of places but since everyone went...  
  
"Uhmm... Hi. It's my first time here so I hope you don't mind if I play my own stuff. This first song is called..." He paused, not knowing what song to sing for them. He wanted to make them know just how good he is and just what he was feeling. He scanned his brain for a song... And found it hidden behind shards of broken glass.  
  
"... This song is called **Home**." His thin fingers strummed his guitar and he began to play the intro of the song.  
  
The song played sweetly, almost with a strange rockish, blues-like feel. Yet somewhere within the music, a tone of pain was heard and the sound was beginning to fill the room. It wasn't like a song that someone that looked like that would compose... No, he was far too young to feel like that and to make music that good...  
  
But everyone knew that this was more than music. This was someone's life.  
  
And he sang. He sang a song he wrote for no one else but him.  
  
And he knew that everyone could feel his pain. His broken glass that stabbed through his heart.  
  
Especially the teenagers that sat to his right.  
  
"Oh my God..." Kitty muttered to herself, her eyes now completely focused on the boys painfully twisted facial expression. His eyes were downcast, looking at the strings of his guitar as he sang in a voice that was on the verge of crying. Every syllable he spoke played forever in their ears, all his anger and frustration becoming a part of theirs.  
  
The song played on, the room eerily quiet except for the sound of his guitar and his hurt voice. No one even bothered to ask a waiter for any drinks. No one even bothered to say anything about his singing.  
  
But he didn't know that they weren't in silence because they didn't care.  
  
It was awe. But he didn't know that. All he knew was that the audience wasn't giving him any response.  
  
The song ended, the crowd stood silent as he watched everyone's eyes.  
  
Then he weakly uttered into the microphone.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
Then he ran out, his guitar in tow and the seat he was using toppling to the ground.  
  


+++

He ran out the cafe and into an alley, constantly wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket. He didn't even care about the money. He didn't care about it anymore. He couldn't go back home because he knew that his parents might find out about his, his thing!   
  
_What am I playing for? For money to buy food that wouldn't last me a day? Was I just going to play on the streets for the rest of my life to people who don't understand?_ He was screaming at himself inside and he wanted to end his pathetic existence in a world that he knew would not understand what was going on with him.  
  
A beer bottle lay on the ground beside a Dumpster, calling out to him...  
  
He picked it up, staring at his reflection dreamily for the last time.  
  
And brought the bottle down against the side of the Dumpster, smashing one end and sending shards of glass flying everywhere.  
  
He traced the sharp edge of the glass along his wrist, a small thin line of red slowly becoming visible.  
  
And then someone yellng out his name.  
  


+++

"Damon!" The red-haired Rogue yelled into the alley, startling the boy who was hunched over his wrist, blood dripping quickly from the very visible cut.  
  
The boy took a step backwards, a trail of blood follwing him as his back pressed against the cold brick wall.  
  
_Back off..._ He thought to himself, the girl who was coming closer to him not realizing what she could get herself into.  
  
"Please... Don't come any closer." He said, his voice as assertive as he could in his choked up voice.  
  
But his eyes spoke everything. He wanted her to come closer.  
  
He wanted someone to help him. He just didn't know how to call out to them.  
  
"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you." Rogue knew what was going on and she was scared about what Damon might do if she kept on coming closer. He might take his life right now, end things faster than just by cutting your wrist open. But she knew things weren't going to become better if she didn't.   
  
She had to take the risk. If it meant saving the life of a person like Damon, she was going to take every single risk.  
  
_Back off...  
  
...Back off...  
  
...Back off..._  
  
Then more of her friends appeared behind her another red-headed girl comign closer as well. His heart was beating faster and with every beat, more blood dripped to the cold cement floor.  
  
"I said..." He pointed his nonbleeding arm at her, his hand opened wide...  
  
And flames began to spray everywhere.  
  
"What the?!" Rogue cried out as she avoided the blast of flame that was jetting out of his hand. Jean immediately created a barrier to prevent the flames from totally toasting everyone.  
  
But Rogue was already too far away to protect.  
  
She was on her own.  
  
"Please, stop! I'm here to help!" She tried to reach through to him but the boy was too scared, too crazy from fear. She glanced at his left arm and saw that he was losing blood at a fearsome rate. She also knew that the only way he was going to be okay after this was if she took his power from him.   
  
She began to run towards him, braving the flames that were poised to incinerate her.  
  
"Why? Why won't you people just let me die?" Damon yelled just before he closed his eyes, letting flames burst from the air all around him. One of the explosions burst right to the side of Rogue, flinging her against the wall with startling force. She thought she felt one of her ribs crack from the impact but that was one thing that wouldn't stop her from getting to Damon. She ran again, the explosions bursting all around her, the temperature rising every second to almost unbearable temperatures.  
  
She jumped, an ungloved hand reaching out to touch Damon's neck.  
  
And then he blacked out, the last thing he remembered was the welcome warmth that had begun to surround him seconds after unleashing his power. He fell, a faint smile gracing his cold, purple lips.   
  
"Rogue! Are you okay?" Jean asked, the boys taking care of Damon as he lay on the floor, limp as a rag doll. Rogue simply sat there, quiet, her fingers tracing his hair as she stared at him silently.  
  
"Rogue?" Jean repeated, her face worried for whatever it was that Rogue may have found out by touching him.  
  
"Damon..." She finally spoke as Kurt tied his handkerchief around Damon's small wrist, her eyes still focused on the silent, smiling boy that they were carrying.  
  
"We better get him to the institute soon. We'll be able to take care of him there." Scott suggested, hoisting the unconscious body to their convertible, making sure that no one was around to witness the scenario Damon had created. Luckily the streets were empty so they asked Kurt to port back to the Institute to ask the professor for help. In a second, they were gone in a puff of smoke, everyone asking each other if they thought that Damon was going to be fine.  
  
All the while Jean was thinking what it was that Rogue may have felt. You didn't need telepathic powers to see that whatever it was, it was something that you would never want to see.  
  
They all sat down and began to drive back home, Jean sitting in the back beside Rogue, hoping that she would tell him what it was that she saw.  
  
Rogue carried with her Damon's guitar, her fingers dreamily sliding on the strings.  
  
But it wasn't just the guitar that she was carrying with her now. No, another piece of Damon was with her... And it wasn't something she could give back.  
  
The trip continued on in silence, the only sound coming from the gentle hum of the car's engine.  
  


+++

Nightcrawler had greeted them at the gate, telling all of them that he was at the clinic and that the professor said that he would be fine with rest. Even so, they were still anxious to see Damon so they continued on to the clinic where they knew he lay, unconscious.  
  
Except for Rogue. In fact, that was the last thing she wanted to do.  
  
"Guys." They stopped dead in their tracks, everyone turning around to hear what she had to say.  
  
"Remember, back at Redd Sun? How sad he looked when he was singin'?"  
  
"Ja." Nightcrawler answered. "It vas as if... As if he vanted to run away from ze stage."  
  
"Yeah... But when I touched him..." Rogue's eyes then began to fill with tears, some of them trailing down her face, her tears turning black as her mascara would run down along with them.  
  
"...He's so afraid... So very afraid..." They thought as much, they knew that the moment he was sitting on the stage, his heart playing in his music.  
  
"I wish I never saw any of it... Dear God, I wish I never saw any of it..."  
  


+++  
  
_In an alleyway somewhere in Bayville, a broken bottle lay silently in a puddle of red...  
  
_End...?

Authors notes: Just for the record, I think that this sample went a little too long. Maybe I'll turn it into a sort of fiction series with Damon as a new character... Oh, and many many thanks to Nightbloom for inspiring me with her writing! (To those who don't know who Nightbloom may be, she is the one true X-Men:Evolution slash fanfiction Deity! Long live her Inner Conflicts series!)  
  
To everyone who happens to be a fan of X-Men:Evolution and slash fiction, I'm pleased to announce that the very first slash-friendly X-Men:Evolution RPG is on it's way! All I have to do is work on the finishing touches and I'll release it to the public!  
  
And if any of you out there happen to be fans of Staind, you might have guessed what that song was. Home -Unplugged- has got to be the most painful song I will ever hear... Aaron Lewis is Gloom Rock God! If you feel like getting yourself depressed and broody and all teenage angsty, go and do yourself a favor: Download Home -Unplugged-! Or even better, get the album! NO, change that, get **ALL** their albums! It's on their second CD, **Dysfunctional** if you were wondering. Everyone deserves to feel a little suicidal now and then. It's good for the soul. 


	2. [ Roof overhead ]

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"To be..."  
Chapter two  
**[ Roof overhead ]**

* * *

Warmth.  
  
That was the first thing he noticed.  
  
His eyes slowly opened, staring at a white ceiling through the darkness. Light peeked out from behind an opening in the curtains, giving him a vague idea of where he was.  
  
He knew he was in a room. Not dead.  
  
He felt around for his glasses and found them on a table beside his bed.  
  
"A hospital?" He asked himself, unsure of where he actually was. Strange, he didn't remember the sky being clear last night... Then he glanced at a digital clock that sat on the table, it's crimson lights telling him that it was three in the morning...   
  
_"Where in the heck am I?"  
  
_ He sat up, only to fall back to sleep from dizziness.  
  


+++

  
  
_Another room... this time lit by two small lamps to his sides instead of by moonlight.  
  
A faceless man beside him, stroking the hair on the side of his head, whispering to him that he was the best that he's ever had.  
  
An overwhelming sensation of disgust.  
  
Then anger.  
  
A fake smile.  
  
A wallet filled with money.  
  
And warm lips pressed against his own.  
  
He closed his eyes, taking the invasion like the good boy they expected him to be._  
  


+++

  
  
"Good morning Damon." His eyes opened and he turned to his right, a bald man in a wheelchair was sitting beside his bed. An african-american woman was behind him, stirring something in a bowl, both smiling at him.  
  
The smiles weren't fake. Unlike in his dream.  
  
_But who...?_  
  
"Forgive me. My name is Professor Charles Xavier." The man spoke, his voice elegant, reminding him a lot of his english teacher back at his old school.  
  
"And this is Ororo Monroe. My students brought you here last night because they taught that you needed medical attention."  
  
_Students...? Professor Xavier...? Is this some kind of school?_  
  
He tried to speak but suddenly was forced to clutch at his head when a small throbbing sensation brought back the same dizziness as last night.  
  
"Easy. Try not to move too much, you still need to rest." It was the woman's turn to speak, bringing to him the bowl which she was stirring. He noticed that   
  
_Oatmeal... I hate oatmeal. It's not like you have a choice now, do you Damon?_ He mumbled mentally, brathing the scent in deeply.  
  
"Where... Am I?" Every word he spoke was strained, his difficulty in speaking was more likely the cause of not enough food for three days.  
  
"We can answer your questions later. For now, all you need to do is to eat."  
  
Ororo brought the spoon to his mouth and began to feed him.  
  


+++

  
  
Scott wasn't the one who was most affected by heir encounter with the young mutant, that honor went to the gothic Rogue, but he felt an obligation to the boy.  
  
He was the unspoken leader of the X-Men. He also knew that he was bound to be the one who would look after Damon once he was out of the infirmary.  
  
Scott sometimes thought of a place where he wasn't Mr. Big Brother. Where he wasn't the one making decisions for everybody and being the most serious out of all of them. A place where he didn't feel all the pressure of holding a title like this...  
  
But he knew it was a responsibility he would gladly take. After all, if the Nightcrawler was the one leading the X-Men, who knows how long they would last?  
  
And as a leader, you have to understand your subordinates.  
  
Rogue was always distant, only talking when spoken to and almost never opening up to anyone. It probably came with the look but he also knew that it was because of her insecurity at not having a past. The sheer thought of just appearring out of nowhere with no one knowing who or where you came from was enough to unnerve even Scott!  
  
But Rogue seemed to carry all of that inside of her.  
  
Only her.  
  
Then how come is it that touching a boy as young as Damon would cause her to turn even more reclusive than she actually was?  
  
Something so dark and foreboding lay in the mind of the boy. And now, it was a part of Rogue, whether she liked it or not. His eyebrows twitched in uneasiness at the idea that there was something behind Damon that they might not ever find.  
  
He paused, his attention from the silent gothic girl broken by someone talking to him inside his head.  
  
"He's awake." Scott calmly mentioned above Evan and Kurt's private food fight.  
  


+++

  
  
"That... That was delicious. Thank you, miss Monroe." Ororo smiled fully at hearing the small boy being so polite to her. Living in the same house as Kurt and Evan can make you long for more peaceful kids.  
  
But somewhere in the back of her head, she felt that Damon wasn't truly at peace.   
  
"Do you know that you have been unconscious for almost an entire day?" Damon blinked, the idea never popping into his head.  
  
"No... No, I haven't realized that."  
  
_An entire day... I was out cold for an entire day... If they never brought me here..._  
  
Damon lifted himself up from his bed, the dizziness fading from his head thanks to finally receiving nourishment. "I'm sorry miss Monroe, I have to get going."  
  
His legs were aching and his guitar felt unusually heavy. He winced in pain but he knew he couldn't stay here.  
  
"Please Damon, stay awhile. Give the institute a chance." He stopped, his knuckles white from gripping his guitar.  
  
"We can help you." She said softly. Damon felt like no one could. Afterall, who in the world could relate to a person who could burn anything to the ground in seconds? No one was like him...  
  
"We understand your gift." Damon laughed at the word Gift. How could you exactly call this, this mobile freak accident waiting to happen, a gift!?  
  
"I don't think you quite understand Miss. I don't think **ANY** of you know how it feels to carry this, this... gift, if that's what you would like me to call it, around for your entire life! Do you even know just how bad my life's been because of this **Gift**?"  
  
Boiling blood began to coarse throughout his body and he could feel the fire burning in his fingers again. Mentally, he scolded himself for the sudden outburst but he knew that it was important. This lady couldn't possibly understand what could happen if he was left here in this highly flammable house!  
  
"No, I do not know how bad your life has been. That life is yuors and yours alone, no amount of words can take away any of your pain. But hasn't it dawned onto you that the ones who brought you here have lived a life similar to yours?." Ororo's eyes spoke with authority in a way her gentle voice did not. An authority that seemed to break his will to resist and just make him crumble in his own state of pity.  
  
But he didn't. Not now. He has to leave here before anyone gets hurt.  
  
"I don't think any of them have bursts of fire coming out of their fingers like this now, do they?" He demonstrates, the flames dancing dangerously in front of his face, ready to get out of hand at any moment if only he wasn't so intent on showing her what it meant to be him.  
  
"No, none of them have flames that emerge like that." Damon smirked, maybe she wasn't as persistent now that she's seen just how dangerous hs power can be?  
  
Then the windows began to rattle, the howling winds outside very audible behind the glass windows.  
  
One... Two.. Three... And then rain.  
  
"But none of them can control the weather either." The confused boy's flames died down slowly in his hand, his eyes staring out the window incredously as he watches trees seemingly bend to a storm that had just emerged from nowhere...  
  
From nowhere... Just like his flames.  
  
"Y,you...?" He stammered, staring wide eyed at the woman whom he was sure could not relate to anything about him moments ago. A woman that he was mocking for not understanding power when it was right in your face, threatening to burn your very home.  
  
Now he felt like he was the one being mocked. But he felt good knowing that someone was able to mock him on his own terms.  
  
He wanted to smile at her. Instead, his jaw fell to the floor in shock.  
  


+++

  
  
"So... how is he Professor?"  
  
The day seemed long for all the X-Men, maybe with Kurt and Evan being the exception since they showed almost no signs of being all too affected by the event's that had just transpired.  
  
But the day seemed exceptionally longer for Rogue.  
  
She knows about what's happened to Damon back before they met hm and she knew that she couldn't tell anyone about it. Not Jean. Not Ororo. Not Xavier.  
  
Then what was she supposed to do? Deal with all that trauma like it was her own?  
  
She sighed weakly. This was why she hated being herself. No memories of your own but everyone else's... No long lost treasures hidden in the back of your head... Instead ugly skeletons in the closet. Not any of them being hers.  
  
Jean had been watching her every moment, she knew that. Ever since then, she knew that Jean knew as well. She wasn't blind to the idea that she may have seen something that she shouldn't have but leave it to Jean to act all professional about everything. Rogue knew that she would never break that promise that both she and the professor had made about keeping their distance about their thoughts. But now was different...  
  
_Why won't you read my mind and help me?_ She mentally screamed, her scream falling on Jean's deaf ears. "He still needs to rest to gain back the energy he lost when you found him. But other than that, he will be fine and mobile in a day or two." They sighed in relief at the news.  
  
But Rogue was preoccupied. Preoccupied with thoughts that she knew were not hers.  
  
Down a hallway, a door was heard opening.  
  


+++

  
  
"Umm... Hey there."  
  
_God, I suck at this. No wonder no one knew who I was back home.  
  
_ "Good afternoon, Damon. I'm glad to see that you're begnning to feel better." Okay, he knew who the Professor was and he just got newly acquainted with Ororo ini a very strange way...  
  
_But what was everyone else's name?_  
  
"Damon, allow me to introduce you to my pupils. These two were the very first that were enrolled into the Institute. Scott Summers and Jean Grey." They shook hands cordially, both of them smiling back at Damon warmly. Damon couldn't help but smile back. It was the first time someone had smiled at him like that...  
  
One by one they were introduced to him, each of them feeling lke friends already. He already liked Kurt a lot, he found the accent funny and everytime he would talk he would giggle inside, careful not to show it for fear of being offensive. Scott and Jean felt very welcome to him, probably because of the bigger sibling feeling that they just seemed to give off. Kitty seemed fun, Even without the cheerleader-like speech and Evan looked lke he knew how to enjoy himself, something that he hoped would rub off on him.  
  
Then there was that one girl... "And this is Rogue." He gave his hand to greet her, only to be met with a gaze that sent a chill down his spine.  
  
"Charmed, I'm sure. Excuse me professor, I've got homework to do."  
  
And there and then, she left them, no one bothering to stop her. Damon felt a pang of guilt in his mind. _Was it something I did?_  
  
"You have to forgive her... Rogue doesn't take well to everyone she meets." He nodded at the professor but his eyes followed the girl up the stairs, not knowing why he was rejected so quickly.  
  
And he began to wonder if he was supposed to know her from somewhere...  
  
"Umm... Professor? Is it okay if I ask a question?" He asked nervously, his hands sweating inside of his pockets.  
  
"Please, ask anything."  
  
"A..." He paused, unsure if this was something that would seem offensive. He took a look behind him at Ororo then back at the professor.  
  
"A-are all of you... I mean, do all of they... Y'know?"  
  
"Have powers like you?" He shrugged, god he so sucked at this!  
  
"Does this answer your question?" Kitty phased into a wall, Damon's eyes becoming as wide as saucers at seeing someone go through solid wood and back. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, which was kind of strange since he thought that he was the strangest person he would ever get to know!  
  
"What about..." Evan answered by growing shards on his right arm.  
  
"Or..." Jean then began to make her books float n front of her... And then in a clean circle abover her.  
  
"And what about..." A cloud of smoke and then Kurt was in front of him, followed by another cloud of smoke and Kurt was hanging onto the Chandelier. "Ver you vondering about me?" Kurt laughed, the look on Damon's face was priceless! He's never met a person who was so amazed by mutant abilities like Damon was and it was worth it, porting around pointlessly just to see the boy's jaw dropping like that!  
  
"Okay... This is way... way... strange. But, you know, in a cool kind of strange." He turned to Scott, expecting him to be just like the rest of them and show of his ability. he was puzzled by Scott simply standing there, like someone...  
  
Normal.  
  
"I can't show you what I can do right now. It isn't exactly very indoor friendly." He nodded his head in understanding, still amused by the fact that people like him were standing in the same room as he was, for the very first time!  
  
It made him feel... wanted.  
  
He smiled and then laughed out loud, everyone's eyebrows raised in questioning. 

+++

  
  
_Somewhere in Bayville, a boy was sleeping. In a bed. His own bed._ End...?

Authors notes: Anyone ever found it strange that you can enroll at Bayville anytime of the year? Oh well, it makes a lot of things easier for me.  
  
And where is this all actually headed? Oh I can't spol that yet but I can tell you this, another one of my Original characters will be brought into the scene and... a lot of things are going to happen, and I mean this in an evil, badly-written villainous plot kinda way... Muhaahaa...  
  
Damon: '-_- Someone... anyone... Help...?  
  
Fox: Don't worry Damon! I won't hurt you... What made you think that? *Sinister cackle then goes all Darth Vader-ish.*  
  
Rogue: You're in for it now. He never uses the Vader voice unless...  
  
Damon: No! I don't even want to know! *covers ears and panics*  
  
Fox: Nah, don't worry kiddies. Nothing too evil until a later chapter. And I was seriously considering a Damon x Rogue pairup...  
  
Damon | Rogue: Huh? O.O  
  
Fox: ...But I'm a slash person so... no. All ye people who don't know how Damon really looks like, here's a link: "Http://www.virtue.nu/ocular/evolve/Damon.jpg" 


End file.
